


Life as a Hacker

by Full_Moon_Lover



Series: 25 Days of Christmas [23]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Celebrity, Alternate Universe - Hackers, Celebrity Crush, Hacking, M/M, Non-Youtuber Phil, Youtuber Dan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 13:54:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8982622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Full_Moon_Lover/pseuds/Full_Moon_Lover
Summary: “Person A is a hacker and is trying to figure out what person B is hiding because person B is like a celebrity.”





	

**Author's Note:**

> Day 23! 2 days until the end of 25 Days of Christmas!
> 
> As requested by StarKatW on AO3.

Phil had always had knack for accessing things that he probably shouldn’t on a computer. His brother had always complained that he couldn’t hide anything on his personal laptop without Phil somehow finding it every time he used it. 

It started out as nothing but simple curiosity. He had never liked people keeping secrets from him so whenever he saw a file with a password or something out of place on a computer, he always tried his best to solve it without paying any mind to the fact that there must be a reason why people were hiding it in the first place.

This fascination of his had gotten him in his fair share of trouble. The one thing that stuck in mind the most was when he found the porn his brother kept secretly saved in his computer. It had been seven years and his brother no longer really cared about it but Phil still got bright red whenever it was brought up. Needless to say, it was not one of his finer moments.

His skill also managed to get him his first real job. Phil had never thought in a million years that he could become a hacker but it seemed his knowledge in getting into places no one else could through nothing but a computer was actually something that many people looked for.

Phil had never learned how the manager of a gossip magazine had come to learn about him but it had gotten him the job so it wasn’t as if Phil could really complain. It paid fairly well and what he had to do was actually quite simple when compared to how knowledgable he was in the area. All that was expected of him waste get the magazine the juicy details about celebrities that would allow them to sell the most copies of their magazine.

At first, Phil had absolutely no idea how he was supposed to do that. He had never read a gossip magazine in his life and so, he didn’t have a single clue over what people reading those kinds of things would be interested in.

It didn’t take him long to figure out that the readers were very interested in seeing celebrities’ lives go seriously wrong so that they could feel better about their own. Add in the occasional juicy secret, audit guaranteed the success of their magazine.

Once Phil figured out just what people enjoyed reading the most, it was a piece of cake to start hacking into celebrities’ emails and private Facebook accounts to get information about them that no one else had access to. There were times were he felt bad because he was more than aware that the things he was reading were none of his business. There were times were he even knew making such information public could ruin someone’s career.

Thankfully, during moments like that, his friend and coworker Louise was always around to get him back on track. “I know our line of work makes you feel guilty sometimes. You just have to think bout the positive side of things though. Sure, you’re making public private information that could damage someone’s career but you’re nothing it just to be an asshole. It’s your job which means you don’t get paid if you don’t do it and you could end up being fired. Everyone has to do things they don’t like in order to stay floating sometimes.”

Hearing it put like that didn’t exactly make Phil feel better about what he was doing but at least it helped him keep focused on getting the job done instead of getting lost in his feelings of guilt to the point where it affected his work.

The fact that he hardly knew any of the celebrities he was asked to hack was a definite advantage. He couldn’t feel that guilty over what he was doing if he had never even heard of the person he was hacking.

That all changed when his manager asked him to hack into Dan Howell’s private email. Phil felt his stomach drop and he was pretty sure he turned white. On the contrary of all the celebrities he had been asked to hack so far, he actually knew who Dan Howell was. Not only did he know him, but he also happened be a big fan.

Dan Howell couldn’t be considered a ‘traditional’ celebrity. He had become known through his Youtube channel and then spread out into doing other things once his channel started gaining momentum. Now he had a book out, had gone on a tour around the world to promote said book and there were rumours that he was even thinking of giving acting a try.

Phil knew all this without even having to look anything up. He had stumbled upon one of danisnotonfire’s videos while he was browsing through Youtube on one of his sleepless nights and ended up liking what he saw. At first, he had watched his videos as a way to entertain himself whenever he felt bored but he soon found himself warming up to Dan Howell.

He was awkward but in a loveable way and Phil actually found himself relating to a lot of things he said in his videos. He ended up subscribing after a few days of watching his videos and the rest was history. No one had been as excited as him when Dan announced he was releasing a book he wrote himself and had actually gone on one of his tour dates.

Needless to say, Phil was a fan. He absolutely loved Dan Howell and that is why he had absolutely no idea how he was going to get the job done. He was sure that hacking into his private emails would be really easy, as it always was. The hard part was going to be releasing any information he found to his manager. He knew he couldn't show up empty handed, it would cost him his job. However, presenting anything worthwhile would mean exposing Dan Howell’s secrets. Secrets that no one had the right to know and that could very possibly damage his career.

In other words, Phil found himself at a crossroads and he knew he was going to have to make a choice.

 

*

 

The more he looked through Dan’s private inbox, the more Phil wanted to slam his head against the table.

He had started looking through his private email in the hopes of finding nothing of interest. If that was the case, then he could let his manager know and they’d move on to another celebrity. It would have been the perfect solution since it would have kept Dan safe while also allowing Phil to keep his job.

Unfortunately, it only took him a few minutes of scrolling through the emails to realise Dan Howell was actually hiding quite a lot from the public eye. His interest in men, apart from women, was the first thing that struck Phil.

His first reaction at finding that out was elation. His celebrity crush was very probably bisexual and Phil couldn’t not be happy about that. Dan Howell was just like him.

His elation quickly ebbed away into nothing when he remembered that no one knew about this and he could feel his stomach dropping all over again. No one deserved to be outed before they were ready and without their consent. Phil wasn’t stupid enough not to realise that was exactly what would happen if he went to his manager with this information.

Phil knew he could never let this get to anyone but him. It was bad enough that he had found out through snooping around someone else’s personal emails. He had no idea how he was going to keep his manager from finding out about this while also keeping his job at the same time, but he was going to have to try.

 

*

 

His idea for getting out of the mess he had found himself in was the stupidest Phil had ever gotten. 

He ended up finding a few of Dan’s emails concerning a few private videos on Youtube that seemed innocent enough. He hoped that if he presented his manager with these videos and point out the fact that they were privated, the writers of the magazine could turn it around and make it sound like a bit of a mystery.

Dan would probably not appreciate his private videos being talked about again but Phil was pretty sure he would rather have that than being forcefully made to come out to the general public.

It was a stupid plan and Phil had no guarantees that would work but he had to try. He would never be able to live with himself if his idol ended up being forced to come out all because of him. It might be his job and he might have indirectly ruined loads of celebrities’ lives with his work, but he couldn’t do it to Dan Howell as well.

What Phil handout realised was that his manager had almost no idea about Youtube whatsoever. He knew how to look up videos he wanted to watch, sure, but he had no idea what it meant to have a career on Youtube. That meant that when Phil put forward Dan’s private video, his manager actually believed him when he tried to make it sound like some big mystery.

Phil tried not to look too shocked when his manager congratulated him on a job well done when he actually knew he hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary. He had somehow managed to get away with the stupidest plan in existence and managed to keep Dan Howell’s private life…well, private. At least for the time being.

He knew that Dan would probably never get to know about what happened since Phil hardly left any traces of his shopping around, but he felt good knowing he had done the right thing and kept from turning Dan’s life into one big mess he was to blame for.

 

*

 

Weeks later, Phil had almost completely forgotten about the averted crisis. It was nearing Christmas time and so it was a time where sales of their magazine boosted up. That meant Phil was actually busier than normal hacking into private emails and Facebook accounts and didn’t have much time to think about Dan Howell and his act of good will towards him. 

That meant he was completely unprepared for the visit he got at his apartment one day.

Phil couldn’t help but grumble when someone decided it was a good idea to knock at his door at seven in the morning. “The hell is wrong with people, people are sleeping at this time of day”, he mumbled sleepily as he was walking to the door. He quickly shut up when he saw just who had been knocking at his door.

Dan Howell, in all his glory was standing there, looking comfortable as if he tended to show up at Phil’s door regularly. Phil couldn’t do anything other than stare at him with his mouth wide open, unable to comprehend what his celebrity crush was even doing there in the first place.

In the end, Dan was the one to break the silence. “You’re not the only one capable of doing a bit of hacking”, he said, smirking in satisfaction. “I could tell right away that someone was looking through my personal email so I did bit of digging and it all came back to you, Phil Lester. Or should I say mysterious hacker?”

Phil had never wanted the ground to swallow him up more than in that moment. How the hell had he been found out? He was always so careful and no one had ever been able to tell he had been hacking them. Even in the unlikely event that they noticed, he always made it impossible for anyone to trace him.

Dan seemed to notice the shocked look on his face and shrugged. “Editing videos is not the only thing I can do on a computer. Let’s just say you chose the wrong person to hack”, he explained. “I was thinking of suing you but then my manager told me something interesting. Apparently you saw some emails regarding my…sexuality. You had the chance to make it public new and instead invented some story.”

The second Phil heard the word suing, his blood ran cold. Getting sued would mean the end of his career. He didn’t know the details but he was pretty sure that hacking someone’s email could be considered illegal. If a celebrity actually opened a case against him in court, Phil had no doubt he would lose.

He calmed himself down a little when he realised that Dan was not really angry. He actually seemed curious over why Phil did what did so he hastened to explain. “I’m a hacker at a gossip magazine which is why I ended up in your personal email. I also happen to be a big fan of yours and i just couldn’t do anything to ruin your career. Not to mention that no one deserves to be outed before they’re ready.”

Dan actually seemed to be impressed by his answer and Phil couldn’t help feel relieved. The more he impressed Dan, the least likely he would be to actually sue him.

Fortunately, Dan seemed to have other ideas. “That’s what I was told by my manager. Not everyone would have done what you did. I know of a couple of journalists who would have had a field day if they read the emails you did. Thanks for that, it’s just not the right time for me to come out yet. I actually came here to thank you”, he explained, somehow managing to shock Phil even more.

“Not everyone would have done what you did and I know it could have affected your job so I wanted to take you to lunch as a thank you.”

Phil wasn’t sure if he had just heard properly or if he was still actually asleep and dreaming the whole thing. “You want to take me to lunch? Even though I hacked your email?” _Who does that?_

“Yep, it’s the least I could do”, Dan said, smiling atheism as if this sort of thing happened everyday and there was nothing weird about it. “I admit I’m very glad you’re at least attractive though. It will make our lunch a lot more enjoyable.”

Phil wasn’t sure what was happening, and he had the feeling that it was going to stay like that all the way through the lunch he was apparently having with his idol. All he knew was that the had never been more glad over his hacking abilities.

“So what do you say hacker? Want to get lunch today?”

**Author's Note:**

> I admit, this oneshot ended up being kind of shit. It started out well but the further I got along the more I seemed unable to take it where I wanted it to go? And the ending was just cringe-worthy :( 
> 
> I'm really sorry, this is not the type of content I wanted to give you so close to the end of the 25 Days of Christmas but, with Christmas so close, I've been really busy and I have no time to try rewriting the whole thing again. 
> 
> Hopefully you will still somehow enjoy it!
> 
> I swear, I'll make it up to you all in Day 24 and Day 25 :)


End file.
